


Up

by Degizzie



Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Keenler - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 13:37:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6472066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Degizzie/pseuds/Degizzie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Liz' arm really was broken in The Scimitar? She'd need help from Ressler to get dressed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my very first published fanfiction story. It's a one shot that may turn into two chapter because I feel like I'm not really done yet with this story.  
> English is not my first language so if anything is off it's probably because of that. It's really not easy to write in a foreign language so please correct me on my grammar or spelling of any kind! I could use all the help there is. I want to get better. 
> 
> This is something that came into my head today and I really wanted to write it down for a change. In fact I was actually so inspired I couldn't stop writing and now it's almost two thirty am. I just couldn't resist writing down a flustered Ressler helping dress Liz.  
> Also, I completely forgot to think of a title so I just went with 'pants' for now. Suggestions are welcome.  
> Edit: changed the title. Still not convinced. But I'll get there.

There was bronzer on the telephone. She had touched his hand to grab the phone and now there was bronzer on her hand and the telephone. Why would anyone have recently applied bronzer on their hand? The only reason would be to hide something, like a tattoo.

 _Something's off._ Liz thought.

But for now she had delivered the message to Cooper, and Samar was on her way over so Liz sank back into the pillow a little deeper and tried to get some rest.  
After half an hour she didn't think that was gonna happen though. Her arm kept throbbing. _Did they even give me anything for the pain?_  
Ressler still hadn't woken up, which worried her. And didn't Dr. Rivera say that Radiology was going to get him shortly? It's been half an hour already. She needed to find out what was wrong but for now she'd play along.

The nurse that came to hang a new IV bag at Ressler's bed inquired if everything was okay. The nametag read Paula Dixon. She answered glumly at Paula's question though. The pain in Liz' arm was still annoying but she figured she didn't need any drugs. If anything was amiss then she needed full brain capacity. While asking after Radiology for Ressler she noted in which pocket Paula placed her scissors. The nurse tried to appease her by telling her they'd be down soon but Liz couldn't wipe that worried look of her face even if she tried. She tried to make small talk about Ressler but Liz kept quiet and pretended to be upset about him. Not that it was hard, she really was worried.

Paula promised to call Radiology and left the room. Liz shot into action and threw the blankets off her to race to Ressler's bedside. She checked the hospital clipboard to see the last thing the nurse had written and soon discovered empty pages that were only there as filling.

_I knew it._

There was definitely something wrong here. She might not even be at Bethesda. Upon hearing the nurse coming back Liz went to Ressler's side to act the worried partner. As predicted Paula immediately reprimanded her but Liz faked being faint so she could swipe the scissors out of her pocket while hammering about Radiology. Her arm was unfortunately tucked between their bodies and the pain radiating while Paula half dragged her back to her bed made tears jump in her eyes and her voice crack a little. Liz had to admit though, that Paula was an excellent nurse. She kept talking in a soothing tone while putting Liz to bed, tucking her in and all.

When she was gone Liz checked her arm out. She could barely move her fingers without excrusiating pain. Definitely broken, she decided. Paula came back again after five minutes and claimed Radiology was coming down soon to get Ressler for his MRI. But when the nurse came at her with the syringe that according to her was to keep her arm from infecting, Liz just reacted without thinking and grabbed it out of her hand and threw it across the room.

“Agent Keen!”

“I don't want any syringes,” she said 'petulantly'. “I hate them.”

“Even so, that is not proper behaviour.” Paula admonished her. But Liz could see the fleeting panic. It was only for a second and if she hadn't been a profiler she might have missed it because Paula was a good actor for sure. That certainly hadn't been anything to fight off an infection. More likely a sedative.

“I'm going to get a new one and I hope you can be brave for a moment while I give it to you. It's only going to be a little pinch. You can handle that can't you? I bet that arm of yours actually hurts more than a little pinch doesn't it?” The patronizing tone and look on Paula's face was definitely very convincing.

“Yeah, it does. I'm sorry,” Liz apologized. “I just have a real phobia against needles so I need some preparing time.” She looked up at Paula and pouted as cute as she could.  
The nurse visibly deflated. She dropped the hand from her hip and sighed.

“Well why didn't you say so? I'll take it easy on you, okay?” Paula walked towards the syringe on the ground and picked it up.

“Okay.”

“I'll be just a few minutes,” was the last thing Paula said before walking out the room.

Liz shot out of bed to Ressler's bed and pulled out his IV. He had probably been give a sedative all along and Liz hoped the new IV bag hadn't really kicked in yet.

“Ressler!” Patting his cheeks and shaking his shoulder while calling his name seemed to do the trick eventually. It took a few tries though.

“Wha?” He sounded entirely groggy.

“This isn't a real hospital, we have to get out of here. Come on.” Liz pulled on his arm to get him out of bed. When he was somewhat vertical he noticed her state of undress which made him flush a little and her arm in a cast.

“Yhuuu kay?” he slurred pointing a finger at her arm.

“Yeah, it's just broken,” she assured him, “now where are our clothes?” She started rumaging in all the closets in the room and found them eventually in the little cupboards besides their beds. Ressler was trying to shake off the haze of the sedation and just sat there pitifully on the side of the bed.

“Here.” Liz threw their clothes on his bed and dashed towards the door to see if Paula was on her way back. She didn't see anybody yet but they needed to hurry. Who knew how long it was gonna take Paula to fill another syringe and come back. It really would be just a few minutes.

“Come on, start dressing.” Liz pulled out his pants from the pile of clothes and threw them at him together with his t-shirt.

“You should get sedated more, you're entirely more agreeable like this,” Liz joked a little to lift the mood when he did what he was told.

“Ha,” Ressler laughed halfheartedly. It wasn't easy with the cloudiness in his head and it was slow going. So when Liz heard the footsteps in the hallway she took up a stance near the door with an IV pole. And when Paula's head appeared in the doorway who at first looked shocked at Ressler being up and in the proces of pulling on his pants, Liz swung the pole at the nurse's unsuspecting head and knocked her out cold.

“Okay, I think we got some more time now.” Liz hurried back to the bed to continue dressing herself.

 _Oh crap, how am I gonna do this?_ Liz had gotten her legs into her pants just fine, but they were thight pants and not easy to pull up. She looked at Ressler who had just pulled his t-shirt over his head and was pulling it down.

“I'm gonna need some help.”

“Hmm?”

“My pants, Ressler. I can't pull them up with one hand, they're thight. I need you to pull them up for me.”

“Okay.” He closed his eyes for a second and opened them again, hoping to see more clearly. But the room was still vagely out of focus. He stood up from his half leaning and half sitting position on the bed and moved towards his partner.

“Alright,” he sighed bending over a little since she was half a head shorter than him and grabbed her pants by the edges. Liz placed her free hand on his shoulder for some leverage while he pulled her pants up in one go which was slightly too hard because he lifted Liz up as well as the pants. “Woah, there. Take it easy.” They stumbled together as she came back down and Ressler fell against her arm.

“Aaahh.” Liz grabbed her arm and held it more closely too her body. “Ressler!”

“Sorry, sorry.” He lifted up his arms apologetic and looked a little sheepish.

“Ow, shit. That really hurts.”

“I'm so sorry.”

“It's okay, Ressler. Just button my pants now, please.” His cheeks flushed.

“Okay.” He leaned over again and took the two edges to button them. Liz lifted up her shirt to give him a better view but the sight of her naked stomach made him fumble a bit and it took a bit longer than it should have been to button her up.

“Do you, uh.” He then pointed at the zipper. “Do you want me to do that up too?”

“Yes, of course. Come on, hurry up. We have to get out of here.” Oh right, he almost forgot they were in some fake hospital and people were trying to kill them probably. With his cheeks reddening even more he grabbed the front of her pants and the zipper with his other and zipped it up. He was entirely uncomfortable with the fact that he was so close to her private parts. Wasn't she embarrased at all?

Apparently not because when he was done she just grabbed her socks and boots and shoved them in his direction. “Now my socks and shoes, please.” She hopped onto the bed and stuck out her feet.

So Ressler got down on one knee and proceeded to put on her socks and shoes one by one. And Liz not only corrected him once, but twice on how he put her socks on. She was horrified to discover he just grabbed the edges and then tried to wedge them over her feet.

“No, bundle them up first like this.” She showed him how as best as she could with one hand slightly out of commision. She could still move the fingers from her broken arm, but it was painful. “Then put them over my toes and then pull it all the way over.” He looked up and threw her an exasperated look with a matching sigh. But she just stared right back and pointed her head at her feet.

He did as told. The boots were easier. Just slip them on and zip 'em up.

“There. You're done.” He stood up from his kneeling position and faltered a little but Liz shot a hand out and grabbed his arm.

“Carefull. You're still under the influence of that sedative,” Liz worried.

“Really?” he said oh so sarcastic.

“Well, I suppose you're gonna be fine then. Come on, put your own shoes on and let's go.” She jumped off the bed and sauntered over to the doorway checking to see if anyone else was coming. They ended up plodding through the hallway with Ressler half leaning on Liz, careful not to jostle her arm and soon discovered the fake hospital was a set and they were in a warehouse.

“Great, which way do we go?” Liz muttered.

“Anywhere but away from those voices,” Ressler answered nodding his head towards the sound. He was right. Liz could hear the angry voices now. They had probably discovered the unconcious 'nurse' and their disappearance.

“Yeah, let's do that.” So Liz steered them away from the shouting voices and hopefully towards an exit.


	2. Chapter 2

If Samar hadn't gotten to them in time things could've gone ugly.

Liz with her broken arm couldn't really fight off anyone and Ressler was still a bit groggy from the sedation so he wasn't in any state to fight at all. His reflexes would be off and he'd be overpowered in no time. But they were desperate as one guy came towards them and would pass the corner they were hiding in.

_Thank god for kickboxing_. Liz still had functioning legs so she got into a wider stance ready to kick out when the man rounded the corner. She steadied herself with her good hand against the wall and threw out her leg towards his stomach the moment he passed. With an 'oof' her opponent only stumbled back a few paces so Liz braced herself. _This is gonna hurt._ And ran at him, bent over, to plow him over with her good shoulder. He tumbled to the ground with Liz on top of him and she cried out when her broken arm got caught between them and had to bite back the tears. The man took advantage of the moment and solidly punched her in the face, pushed her off him and delivered a second blow. Then, while he had her pinned with a forearm on her chest he grabbed for his gun which she was able to kick away. With the but of her hand she hit him in the chin and wedged her left foot against his chest to push him off. She only managed to push him sideways but it was enough to get away from underneath him and to kick him squarely in the nose. So while he was busy howling in pain and covering his nose with his hands, Liz crawled on her knees for his gun that had fallen a few meters away.

However the sounds seemed to have drawn others towards them as voices got louder. And Ressler only had a moment to shout out “Keen!” as a warning when one rounded the corner - gun raised - ready to shoot. Liz had just reached the gun and was about to turn around when a shot fired. She flinched, but she hadn't been hit and when she turned around Samar was standing there with her gun raised and the guy who was about to shoot her was dead on the floor. A nice round hole in his forehead. A swat team followed and ran by them doing their routine sweep, quickly overpowering the other men in the building.

Knowing they were finally safe Liz groaned, put a hand on her casted arm and finally let the tears fall. “Oh God, this fucking hurts.”   
Ressler was a little bewildered upon seeing the tears and went over to her to kneel down next to her and putting a comforting hand on her back. _Must hurt like hell._

Samar put her gun back in it's holster and pulled out her phone. While pressing the speed dial for contacting Reddington her gaze swept over the two agents noting that Liz was in pain - the cast on her arm indicated why - and Ressler with a glazed look on his face but trying to focus on comforting Liz.

"Reddington, I have them."

Reddington only breathed one word. "Elizabeth?"

"She's okay, but appears to have a broken arm, likely from the crash." Samar walked towards the two agents and put a hand on Ressler's shoulder who looked up at her upon the contact.

"There's an ambulance waiting outside.” She told him softly before continuing updating Reddington. Ressler nodded that he understood and stood up.

"Come one, Keen. Did you here that? Let's go," he said, standing up, while Samar finished her call with Reddington. Liz, still clutching her arm to her chest, came upright a little, sucked in her breath and tried to compose herself.

“I could really use some painkillers," she said weakly. She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand while Ressler grabbed her under her arms and in one swoop lifted her up on her feet.

Leaning on each other they stumbled towards the exit in search of the ambulance. They didn't have to go far. Paramedics descended upon them when they were spotted and guided them to the back of the ambulance. The paramedics didn’t waste time establishing Liz needed x-rays and painkillers and Ressler a proper examination so they transported them to the hospital immediately.

Ressler, the lucky bastard in Liz' opinion, got cleared after a thorough examination and went back out into the field to work the case while Liz stayed behind and was told she needed surgery after the doctor had taken a look at her x-rays. All the moving around and fighting had jostled her broken bones too much out of place and it needed to be fixed surgically. But they had to wait for the swelling to go down first so she got set up in a real hospital room this time to await the surgery with some nice drugs to ease the pain. Really, they were quite great. The good kind you know.  And when they finally left her alone, all the excitement of the day combined with the drugs made her drift off for a couple of hours.

That was until her phone that had been placed on the bedside table started ringing.

It was Volkov who finally decided to play along and gave her the time and place for a meet with Berlin. She called Dembe to relay the information but was unable to fall asleep again. With everything that happened she had almost forgotten about that…and _Tom_.

Oh boy, what was she gonna do about him. With a broken arm there wasn’t gonna be any driving in her future so she couldn’t get to the boat by herself. She didn’t trust Aleka for a hair to do everything by himself so she couldn’t exactly rely on him to take care of Tom.

“Shit,” she muttered out loud. She definitely had taken this way too far and could only come up with one solution: letting him go. As much as he thought she was gonna kill him, Liz knew she could never do that. Oh, she was still furious with him for sure and she did take some delight in having him to her mercy like that and using him as a source. But she had to admit she still loved him. It wasn’t the real him she loved though. She missed that lovable cute naive schoolteacher. So whenever she saw his face she felt enraged, sad and betrayed, but mostly sad because she could only be reminded of the man he was with her and who she fell in love with. Who she lost now.

No, she could never kill him. She knew that.

A knock pulled her out of her reverie. Ressler poked his head around the doorframe. He was still in his blue FBI jacket.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” Liz who was still thinking about Tom could only manage a watery smile. Which didn’t stop Ressler from smiling back.

"How are you feeling?" He asked walking towards her.

“Physically wise, I feel fantastic, those are some amazing painkillers they have. But otherwise like crap.”

Whoops, those painkillers had definitely loosened her tongue a bit. Ressler frowned at the last part but decided to ignore it for now.

“Yeah I bet, those are some drugs huh.”

"What about you?" She asked. Ressler sat himself in the chair next to her bed.

"Pretty great actually." Liz raised an eyebrow. "Well, you know," he began honestly, "after going cold turkey since last week I was feeling like crap. But now, with all the drugs they pumped into me I feel amazing."

"Is that gonna be a problem?"

"No, absolutely not. I said I can do it and I will." Worried as she was, Liz believed him.

“So how did the rest of the case go?” She asked. And Ressler proceeded to fill her in on what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I'm actually going somewhere with this story. This chapter is shorter than the first one but man I had so much trouble getting this right. I've edited it maybe a thousand times before I was somewhat satisfied.


End file.
